Timelines for year 1972
Alan Alda
Before his 2003 emergency surgery in Chile, the surgeon tried to explain the procedure he was about to perform in layman's terms. Alda confidently asserted that the operation is called an end-to-end anastomosis. The stunned surgeon asked how he knew that. Alda replied that he had done the procedure numerous times on "M*A*S*H" .
He and Loretta Swit were the only two to appear in both the pilot episode of "M*A*S*H" and in the final show (with the exception of the opening credits, where Gary Burghoff's character Radar appears, albeit edited after his departure from the show, and Jamie Farr, who provides the voice of the PA announcer in the pilot episode).
Was the only actor to appear in every episode of "M*A*S*H" .
Earned a reported $200,000 a week for "M*A*S*H" in 1980.
Is the first person ever to win an Emmy for acting, writing, and directing. (He accomplished to win in all three categories for his work on "M*A*S*H" ).
He, father Robert Alda and step-brother Antony Alda appeared together in an episode of "M*A*S*H" , "Lend a Hand", during Season 8. Robert had previously appeared in "The Consultant" in Season 3.
Alda almost turned down the role of Hawkeye Pierce on "M*A*S*H" because he did not want war to be a "backdrop for lighthearted high jinks... "I wanted to show that the war was a bad place to be." He had served in the Korean War.
He commuted from his home in New Jersey to LA every weekend for 11 years while starring in "M*A*S*H" . His wife and daughters lived in NJ, and he did not want to uproot the family to LA, especially because he did not know how long the show would last.
He did not sign on to play Hawkeye Pierce on "M*A*S*H" until 6 hours before filming began on the pilot episode.
He has twice played characters from Maine, from opposite ends of the ethical spectrum. In "M*A*S*H" he was noble surgeon Hawkeye Pierce, whose hometown was Crabapple Cove. In The Aviator he played corrupt U.S. Sen. Owen Brewster, nemesis of Howard Hughes. The author of the original "M*A*S*H" books, Maine doctor Richard Hornberger (writing as Richard Hooker), based the Pierce character on himself but was said to dislike the TV version of his story as overly moralistic. As for Sen. Brewster, whose smarmy hypocrisy was well-depicted by Alda, he was booted out of the Senate by Maine voters in the next Republican primary.
Has succeeded Donald Sutherland in two roles: Hawkeye Pierce in "M*A*S*H" , and Flan in Six Degrees of Separation . He played the latter part in an Audio Books recording. During an appearance both made at a ceremony/dinner for Queen Elizabeth II, the two happened to be standing in the reception line next to each other. As they waited for the Queen to make her way down the line, Alda whispered to Sutherland, "Thank you for my life.".
Michael Landon
Publicly supported Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential election, and campaigned for Ronald Reagan in the 1980 and 1984 presidential elections.
Isaac Hayes
First African American composer to win an Oscar for Best Original Song for The Theme from Shaft .
River Phoenix
Is one of only three actors to have played the son of and the younger version of the same actor, by playing Harrison Ford's son and playing young Indiana Jones. The other is Bruno Kirby, who played Richard S. Castellano's son on "The Super" , and the young Clemenza in The Godfather: Part II . Logan Lerman played one of Mel Gibson's sons in The Patriot and the younger Nick Marshall in What Women Want .
Joanne Woodward
Her likeness was used for the paintings of Marguerite Wyke in the Laurence Olivier/Michael Caine thriller Sleuth .
Played mother to real-life daughter Nell Potts in The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds .
Mike Nichols
Is the only person who won a best director Oscar prior to 1972 still living (January, 2009).
Charlton Heston
Missed the start of his presentation at The 44th Annual Academy Awards (TV), because of a flat tire on the Santa Monica freeway. Clint Eastwood stood in for him, and before Eastwood finished the speech that Heston was due to give, Heston arrived, to some audience laughter and enjoyment.
Named The Call of the Wild as his worst movie.